Mourinho’s faith in Doherty
The Tottenham team really picked itself for the north London derby after coming into the game on the back of five successive wins in all competitions.
However, Jose Mourinho did have one dilemma on his hands ahead of the game in terms of who started at right-back out of Serge Aurier and Matt Doherty.
While the former has been the one in the team most weeks in the league after producing consistent performances for Spurs, the latter has taken his chance recently and Mourinho kept faith with him as part of his back four.
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Far from his best at the Emirates as they lost 2-1, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we saw the boss change things about again at Aston Villa next Sunday after the Republic of Ireland international struggled down his flank.
Son scare
With only Giovani Lo Celso on the sidelines for Spurs ahead of the match, Mourinho was dealt some bad news just over 15 minutes into the derby.
Son Heung-min, who has started all 28 Premier League games of the season so far, was forced off with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.
Making a run behind the Arsenal backline as he looked to get on the end of a long ball over the top, the South Korean ace pulled up and immediately went to ground.
Given the amount of minutes he’s played this season and looking in need of a rest recently, it perhaps wasn’t a surprise for many to see him eventually pick up an injury.
The injury to Son saw Mourinho plump for Erik Lamela in attack rather than introducing Dele Alli.
However, the boss wasn’t so happy with the ex-Roma man as he took his time to put his shirt on prior to his introduction.
Shouting ‘vai, vai, vai’ at his player which is Portuguese for ‘go, go, go’, Lamela made up for it not long after with a stunning goal.
Reguilon’s reaction
Perhaps harshly left out of the team given his recent performances, Lamela was straight into action as both Granit Xhaka and David Luiz clashed with him.
Clearly trying to wind him up and get him booked, the player had the last laugh as he netted an audacious Rabona goal that arrowed into the bottom corner.
(Image: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
It was just sublime.
Perhaps not a shock to some fans given he did the same in the Europa League all the way back in 2014, Sergio Reguilon had his hands on his head in amazement.
He won’t have been the only one to do so after that piece of magic.
What Vertonghen called Lamela
Lamela’s outrageous opener certainly had people talking all across social media.
Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku was one of the first to react seconds after the goal, with former Tottenham player Jan Vertonghen also taking to Twitter.
Clearly impressed by the strike, the defender labelled his former teammate as ‘Coco Puskas’ after somehow managing to find the bottom corner.
(Image: Jan Vertonghen Twitter)
With Son winning the 2020 Puskas Award for his wondergoal against Burnley in December 2019, could the award once again be heading back to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the second successive year?
One thing for sure is that it will certainly be a contender for the top prize.
Unhappy Bale
Amongst the goals in two of his three previous Premier League games, it was a very quiet day indeed for Gareth Bale.
With Arsenal dominating the game and Spurs extremely quiet in the final third. the Welshman was on the periphery of the action and just not involved at all.
Electing to change things up shortly into the second half as they looked for a second goal, Mourinho introduced Moussa Sissoko in place of the Real Madrid loanee.
Although he couldn’t really have any complaints about his substitution as he just didn’t have an impact on proceedings, his face said it all when he made way at the Emirates.
He wasn’t best pleased at all and looked extremely unhappy.
Not how he envisaged his return to the north London derby panning out, Bale will be hoping for better luck next week with games against Dinamo Zagreb and Aston Villa on the agenda.